Abstract:
Migration is an important component in terms of understanding population
change of a geographical area. Internal migration has been identified as a vital force
in development with its characteristic of transfer of knowledge and skills through the
point of destination to origin and vice versa. The main objective of the study is to
identify the migration flows as well as to recognize the inter-district efficiencies of
migration in Sri Lanka, which has not been examined before. Although migration
flows have been identified with percentage of migrants flows in the General Report of
the 2012 Population Census, inter-district of migration efficiencies have not been
examined demographically with use the formula use to calculate inter-region
migration efficiencies. of A meaningful way to understand mobility between regions
is to calculate efficiency of migrations between a given region and the rest of the
country which has been effectively and with the use of proper demographic techniques
have been presented in this study. The results of the study reveal that the spatial
orientation of migration (in the present study the spatial orientation is district as the
unit of analysis) is towards Western Province of the country where capital city of Sri
Lanka as well as Industrial zone is located. However, Vavunia, which is a waraffected
district has gained inward mobility because of return migrants after the
conclusion of the war in 2009. Although migration efficiency of Jaffna district is
relatively high, the flow is outward by losing about 60 out of 100 people to the rest of
the country. The importance lies in the recognition of spatial dynamics ( how
migration behaves over defined physical space(s)) in the implementation of social and
infrastructure policies as well as the labour market policies.
